Paris Hilton and Marie Antoinette

It’s possible that some Sofia Coppola of the 23rd century might want to do a movie about Paris Hilton, about how she just wanted to have fun and nobody got the joke. In the meantime, we are witnessing, on a national level, an outpouring of contempt and loathing for a young woman that’s reminiscent of the way people felt about Marie Antoinette, only they’re not mad enough to chop off her head.

I would like, at this point, to go tisk, tisk and write a whole thing about how the media is being cruel to this poor young thing, but there’s no point in using this valuable space to lie for no reason. In this case, I have nothing against the media and nothing good to say about Paris Hilton, except that I don’t wish her bodily harm. But what a sorry excuse for a human being — what a potent symbol of (almost) everything wrong with American life, some vapid rich cretin who springs to prominence (!) on the basis of a sex tape and then remains in the public eye as a drunk.

She’s so vain. She probably thinks this blog entry is about her.

It isn’t. Well it is. Others — worse people — are in positions of power, which they use to wreak bodily harm on people. Paris is not in that league, that major league, of iniquity. But Paris Hilton does do spiritual harm to the culture and, as such, she is a vague but palpable blight. I can think of few harmless people who I’d more like to see in jail. Who more than Paris Hilton? I’m thinking, I’m thinking.